Record-chasing Rory McIlroy needs big last day in Race to Dubai battle
Spaniard Eugenio Chacarra tops projected standings heading into last day of DP World Tour season
Get your calculators at the ready and remember some extremely important information if you are tuning in to watch the final day of the 2026 DP World Tour season on Sunday.
For starters, every single shot is likely to count in a thrilling title battle between Rory McIlroy, the tour’s long-time poster boy, and Eugenio Chacarra, one of the circuit’s new stars, for the Race to Dubai title.
Heading into the last round of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, the duo are locked together on five under par and tied for fourth.
Chacarra, who is bidding to become just the second Spaniard after Seve Ballesteros and Jon Rahm to finish the season as the tour’s No 1, topped the points list coming into this $10 million Rolex Series event.
On the back of sharing the lead at the halfway stage, McIlroy had jumped to the top of the projected standings and was still on course to equal Colin Montgomere’s record of eight Race to Dubai crowns when he made his first eagle of the week at the par-5 seventh in the third round to lead on his own.
It’s Chacarra who is back in the driving seat, though. On a rare disappointing day on the Earth Course, the world No 2 dropped three shots in a row straight after that eagle. Unable to convert another great chance for one at the par-5 18th, he signed for level-par 72 on a day when the majority of the players in the 50-man field carded sub-par scores.
Chacarra was one of them, mixing nine birdies with a double bogey and three bogeys to shoot 68. In jumping up the leaderboard as his title rival was slipping down it, the 26-year-old holds a 534-point lead heading into the closing circuit.
“I just want to win the tournament and I’m not far away,” declared Chacarra, who has been cheered every step of the way so far this week by a small band of fans shouting “vamos, vamos” every time he’s done something good and, boy, has that been the case for most of the season.
“I know if I win the tournament, I will win the ranking. That's what I wanted to do in Abu Dhabi (venue for the first of two big-money Play-Offs in the UAE) and I want to do it here. That's what we prepare for and I'm going to have a chance on Sunday. That's what we dreamed of since I was little - to win big events - and I'm going to have a chance.”
That’s that bit out of the way, but please don’t switch off as we look at the top of the leaderboard and a battle for ten cards on the PGA Tour for the 2027 season.
Tyrrell Hatton, who’d started the day sharing the lead with McIlroy, is now out in front on his own. A five-time Rolex Series winner, he has a record-equalling sixth success in his sights after carding a 68 to sit on nine under.
The Englishman’s closest challenger is Edinburgh-based Frenchman Victor Perez, who sits one behind after a 67 that included three birdies in the last four holes. Neither Hatton or Perez can win the Race to Dubai. Hatton can climb to second while Perez would finish around fifth if he claimed a second Rolex Series victory.
Oh, and they also aren’t eligible either for those PGA Tour tickets. Due to being LIV Golf players this season before the recent collapse of the breakaway circuit, they have to wait until next August to be able to play on the US circuit. In fairness, neither have any quibbles about that.
So, who are the players in line to be teeing up on the PGA Tour next season? Well, Chacarra secured his card a long time ago, as did Patrick Reed, Casey Jarvis and Jayden Schaper. Dan Hillier, Jacob Skov Olesen, Bernd Wiesberger, Andy Sullivan, Mikael Lindberg, who has knocked out Oliver Lindell as things stand, and Joe Dean are the others in card-winning positions.
Francesco Laporta is also still in the mix, though, and he’s sitting alongside Chacarra and McIlroy, as well as former Masters champion Adam Scott, on five under, one behind Lindberg after he finished the penultimate round with three straight birdies.
It’s been a difficult week for the players due to the Earth Course not being in its best condition, though a combination of a little less wind than the opening two days and some more favourable pin positions led to better scoring on Saturday, with Englishman Dan Bradbury jumping up the leaderboard after a best-of-the-week 66 that was lit up by five birdies to finish.
On the sheer strength of his Rolex Series record and also from coming close on two previous occasions when finishing second in this tournament, Hatton is going to be tough to catch. “Well, it would be nice to catch the big man on six,” he said of Jon Rahm, who moved on to that number after his win last weekend in the Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship at Yas Links. “Obviously, he got one ahead. But it’s going to be a tough day tomorrow. I would love to finish the season with a win and I’ll try my best to do that.”
Perez landed the most recent of his three DP World Tour triumphs in the same Abu Dhabi event three years ago. “Tyrrell is obviously a super tough competitor and proven winner in the Rolex Series,” he said of being out in the final group with Hatton. “So I'm going to have to bring my game and try to play as hard as Ican for 18 holes and see where it goes.”
Grant Forrest came home in four under for a 69 to sit in a tie for 20th on one under alongside compatriot Calum Hill following his 71, with Ewen Ferguson, the third Scot to make it all the way to the end of the road this season, sitting joint-42nd on five over after finishing double bogey-eagle for a 73.
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